When comparing Shadow Era vs Eternal, the Slant community recommends Eternal for most people. In the question“What are the best digital Collectible Card Games on PC?”Eternal is ranked 2nd while Shadow Era is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Eternal is:

Draft allows you to keep the cards you pick and earn some extra rewards. Unique mechanics allow signalling and signal-reading in draft while still allowing you to draft on your own time (no waiting for pod or passing).

Pros

Pro

Good deck balance

Many TCGs often have unbalanced decks where one specific deck can trump most others, with devs being slow to correct this. Shadow Era does not have this issue as the devs spend a great amount of time making sure all the deck combinations have good balance.

Pro

Free-to-play done well

The game is free to play but all cards in the game can be earned with free play, there is no need to purchase cards if one does not want to. Though it can speed up being able to build a better desk.

Pro

Sacrifice card mechanic

Each turn the player has the option of sacrificing a card. These sacrificed cards have the ability to add up so that mid to late game they earn the player the ability to spend more power per turn.

Pro

Exceptional limited (draft) format

Draft allows you to keep the cards you pick and earn some extra rewards. Unique mechanics allow signalling and signal-reading in draft while still allowing you to draft on your own time (no waiting for pod or passing).

Pro

Frequent balance changes and diverse metagame

Devs are not afraid to frequently buff or reasonably nerf cards to balance the metagame

Pro

Sweet spot between MtG and Hearthstone

This game is not as complex and deep as MtG, but still it requires a lot more of strategic thinking and deck-building skills than HS. At the same time, a game of Eternal can usually be finished within 10 minutes.

Pro

Huge variety of deck types

You can win with weapons, spells, units, and strategies of all kinds. Brewers and casual players can explore a near-infinite variety of fun decks without tanking their win rate.

Pro

Respects your time

The game's reward structure understands that players want to be competitive without spending tons of money. Rewards can even randomly upgrade to higher tiers.

Pro

Very friendly to free to play players

Rewards for playing vs AI help new/inexperienced players not get obliterated in constructed, and keeping cards you draft helps you build the collection you want without simply opening packs.

Pro

Generous on rewards

The game is very generous on rewards and plays very fast once you're used to it. It's not a money sink like many of the CCGs you encounter nowadays.

Pro

Very fast dev response to bugs and issues

Devs are active in discord channel and official forums.

Pro

The dev team is motivated to make this a great game

Many professional MtG players on the dev team have ensured an eye for overall balance and metagame health throughout beta testing.

Pro

Rewards thoughtful gamers

Many lines of decision making and careful deck management require you to always be on point.

Pro

Beautiful and user friendly UI

The PC UI is incredibly smooth, and although the mobile/tablet UI is a little sluggish, it is still better than some other games.

Pro

Community is mostly kind

Eternal's subreddit and discord server tend to be mature and respectful. People you friend in game are more likely to talk about how cool your deck is than to give you salt.

Pro

Regular updates and content

Updates and promos once a month every month since open beta.

Pro

Pack system is generous

Instead of trading cards with other players, there is a recycling/crafting system for handling duplicate cards and obtaining cards you want. Every pack gives you "shiftstone" on top of whatever cards you open, making it easier to craft expensive cards than in other games.

Pro

Explores unexplored design space

Complex and interesting card design that makes the most of its medium

Pro

Card art is attractive and inclusive

Art is simpler than Magic's, but leans toward realism over cartoons. Women are represented in a respectful and diverse way.

Cons

Con

No longer in development

Con

Poor deck customization

The deck customization in Shadow Era - Trading Card Game is lacking many useful features that other card games do utilize, such as sorting cards by types.

Con

Poor design

The graphics often seem like they are a less priority over other aspects of the game, the UI often falls into this problem too, which can make for a frustrating experience in that it can be difficult to know how to do certain tasks due to a poor layout and graphics.

Con

Mana screw happens

There are elements in the design to help prevent it, but you will still randomly lose games to drawing little or too much mana.

Con

Casual play not yet implemented

Casual mode is planned but not yet available until the player base expands (presumably once the game leaves beta).

Con

Visually lacks in flair and drama that might be appealing to players of other games.

Voice-overs for many cards were recently added in a patch, but only one game board and no interactions between particular entities (calling out relationships or rivals) can make the game feel "stale" or "bland" compared to the level of polish of, say, Hearthstone.

Con

Not a mobile-friendly game

Best played on a PC or a tablet. Playing on a phone can be difficult as it's a direct port from PC so text and images can be tiny. Not a problem if you're familiar with the game, but new players it will be frustrating.

Con

It is a CCG not a TCG

Any money / time you invest into Eternal is locked into the game. You can never get it back out or build actual value in your collection like you can in a trading card game.

Con

Card art may be unappealing to some

While some of the art is appealing, the design of the card eliminates completely the attractiveness that the art could have

Con

It is a MTG clone minus any skill requirements

It has almost no way to out maneuver your opponent. Your draws decide the game. The screw/flood seen in MTG is made worse with the horrible design choice to use 75 card decks.

Con

Playing constructed is expensive

It takes a huge time or money commitment to have the most powerful cards for constructed. Many of the best decks require 10+ of the highest rarity card.